X-Band: The Phantom Podcast

In this episode, the boys are back holding another emergency reaction podcast, this time looking at Tony DePaul, the writer for the newspaper comics, leaving the post. It is going to be interesting to find the fine line between honouring Tony's legacy and sifting through the outrage and optimism and also looking ahead. This is a podcast discussing the news and what is next. 
If you would like to ask any specific questions to him about the series that we have missed, please contact us at [email protected] or leave them on our YouTube channel and/or at our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 
Jermayn Parker, Stephen East and Dan Fraser are joined by our Indian correspondent, Seuj Abir. While he was unable to join us for the podcast recording, we recorded his thoughts separately and have stitched them together. Seuj is one of the many phans who did not read the newspaper comic while Lee Falk was alive and became a phan reading his stories.
In this podcast we go over Tony DePaul's legacy and his 30+ year career writing stories for Fantomen and then the newspaper stories which became Comics Kingdom. 
We look at the Comics Kingdom PR written announcement and Tony DePaul's blog post as well as ours. We share our reactions to the news as well as highlight some of the comments from the phans.
We asked Tony DePaul what his favourite story is/was, and you will be surprised and maybe even disappointed with his answer. We would love to hear what your favourite story of his was as we also share what stories meant the most to us.
We ask the question, wondering aloud if writing about Donald Trump or Elon Musk was a cause for his sacking, along with other possible reasons like 'changing' the Phantom lore and the length of his stories.
We play Nostradamus and look at the decision to hire Alex Segura. Will it future-proof the Comics Kingdom stories? What type of writer could Alex be?
If you are a casual or new listener to our podcast, you may have missed it, but we interviewed Alex Segura in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode 346 and we would recommend you watch and/or listen to it.
You can email us at [email protected] or chat with us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. Make sure you stay with us, and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast on our YouTube Channel. 
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In this episode, Jermayn Parker will be dissecting the latest Sunday Phantom story that has just finished in newspapers around the world and on Comics Kingdom. This story is titled “1536” by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel and is a continuation of the origin stories by Lee Falk.
If you would like to ask any specific questions to him about the series that we have missed, please contact us at [email protected] or leave them on our YouTube channel and/or at our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 
We have four main origin retellings so far, which is actually not that much out of 2000+ odd Phantom stories created from around the world. We may have probably missed a couple, but these would be the main ones:
In 1936, Lee Falk and Ray Moore gave us a week of the origin story. 
In 1971, almost 40 years later, we get a Sunday story that tells us the origin of the relationship between the Bandar, the origin of the poison arrows, the costume, and the rescuing of the Bandar from slavery, and something we will discuss more in this podcast.
In the late 1980s, Team Fantomen, led by Ulf Granberg created several stories, which added on to these stories and snippets. "The Avenger", we see the Phantom getting revenge on the man behind the attack on his ship, the Singh Pirates, and we see the origin of the name "The Phantom".
In 2025 at the start of “The Spark”, Mike Manley and Tony spent two weeks expanding the origin from leaving England to be found on shore by the Bandar.
In many stories, we get four panels or one page in comics of the origin retelling, which has famously been called “For Those Who Came In Late”. This is important, as it catches up potential new readers to who the Phantom is. I would like to see comics do this more.
The Phantom is one of the very few heroes with a legacy passing of the mantle. You have Black Panther, Green Lantern, and Blue Beetle, and the others are all manufactured post-creation, as they see the problem that the Phantom never has that sees the mantle passed from one generation to the next. The Phantom is unique. 
In “1536”, we see the soon-to-be first Phantom found by the Bandar, and in short, this story features the decision of the first Phantom choosing to be the Phantom. By the end of the story, we see the Phantom swearing the oath. In between these two points we get a lot more. This next part will contain spoilers, but you can read this story for free on the Comics Kingdom website, and it will be republished in the next few months by Shakti Comics (India), Fantomen (Sweden), and Frew (Australia).
I think the first thing Phans need to know and remember is that Tony DePaul has not retconned or used one phans words “fiddled” with the lore. He has on purpose extended the stories, especially what has happened in between panels in past stories. This is not like "The Chain" retelling, where he has moved that into a ‘dream’ and ‘removed’ it from his universe (for lack of a better term).
There are two main changes. Tony DePaul has made in this new story are:
The change of the prophecy from saving the Bandar to being the Phantom
The change of the origin of the cloth for the costume
The other thing Tony DePaul didn't include was the Wasaka Tribe enslaving the Bandar. Lee Falk never wrote about them again. I only remember two other stories featuring this tribe again, and those were one by Moonstone and one by Fantomen. Tony on his blog has talked about not liking this potential ‘white saviour trope’, maybe other creators do not like it either, and that is why they have left it alone.
One could argue that for the phans who like this story, this happened during this story or afterwards. Tony in my opinion cleverly and wisely did not retconned that story or on purpose striked it out like he did with the Chain storyline. He has left it alone for those who like it to fit it in their universe. 
Do you like this story?
Did Tony DePaul give enough respect to the character with this “expanding” of the origin?
Did you notice any other changes that I have missed?
Are you happy with the Wasaka not being featured in this story?
You can email us at [email protected] or chat with us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. Make sure you stay with us, and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast on our YouTube Channel. 
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In this episode, Jermayn Parker and Stephen East are joined by our USA reviewer Scott Walyn as we are having another emergency podcast discussing our reactions to the apparent stopping of Mad Cave Studios creating new Phantom comics. We go into our reactions, and is this bad for the future of the character? What is next?
If you would like to ask any specific questions to him about the series that we have missed, please contact us at [email protected] or leave them on our YouTube channel and/or at our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 
Some of the topics and discussion points we touch upon in this podcast are the following:
How we have come to this conclusion.
Our initial thoughts.
Are King Features being too greedy, or are Mad Cave Studios jumping a sinking ship?
We go over sales numbers on Phantom Comics around the world and through out its 90-year history
Is this the end of the Phantom?
Why does this keep happening?
Does this mean Moonstone Books will be back?
Why we need a successful Phantom series in the USA.
Was Mad Cave Studios a success?
We need consistency when it comes to our Phantom comics.
If you would like to learn more about the Mad Cave Studios Phantom stories:
You can watch our interview with Russel Olson, the regular series artist here in Episode #340.
You can watch our interview with Juancho Velez, colourist for the comics here in Episode #336.
You can watch our past review of the regular series here in Episode #332.
You can watch our past review of the regular Defenders of the Earth series 1 here in Episode #315.
You can email us at [email protected] or chat with us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. Make sure you stay with us, and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast on our YouTube Channel. 
Support the show

In this episode, Jermayn Parker is joined by our USA reviewer Scott Walyn as we interview the main writer of the new Comics Kingdom "Phantom 2040: A New Shadow" web comic series Alex Segura. 
In August 2026, we will be interviewing one of the other creators, Alex Segura who was one of the writers of the new Phantom web comic series. If you would like to ask any specific questions to him about the series, please contact us at [email protected]. We do love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. You can leave your comments at our YouTube channel and/or at our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 
Some of the questions we ask and Phantom-related discussions we touch upon in this podcast are the following:
About Alex Segura.
How do you walk the line of having your own universe and showing reverence to the original lore. 
How important was it to keep the ‘old school’ phans happy? 
The importance of Episode 12 was a very ‘phantom’ episode highlighting the important elements of the character. 
The new characters like Fitzroy?
What kind of research did Alex do while writing Phantom 2040? 
Playing in the sandbox of the Phantom. 
Is it dangerous departing from the generational father-to-son mantle as the traditional Phantom? 
Will we see Graft, Sparks, or Maxwell Jr. at all in the new season of Phantom 2040? 
Are there any other characters from this universe you’d love to loop into the series? 
How is it different to write for a web comic compared to a traditional comic? 
Will this series ever be converted to a printed comic? 
What's the working relationship with Michael Moreci the other writer, and you? 
How did you get the Phantom 2040 gig with KFS/Comics Kingdom, and how did you go about working with them? 
What is the fine balance between adding lore to this new ‘universe’ but honouring the character? 
What makes the Phantom great? 
Is the plot of the split of the states in America featured in the web comic an echo of the future? 
How does this Metropia differ from the one in the cartoon? 
What can we see in season two? and when will we see season two?
Is Carlos the son of the last Phantom?
Anti-Phantom's origin.
Is there room for Phantom prose or novels?
You can follow Alex Segura via his website, newsletter, Bluesky, and/or Discord.
You can email us at [email protected] or chat with us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. Make sure you stay with us, and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast on our YouTube Channel. 
Support the show

In this episode, Dan Fraser, Stephen East and Jermayn Parker come together to have an emergency podcast discussing the removal of Dudley Hogarth, the Frew publisher and editor for 12 years. Yes, you are not mistaken; we only took 23 minutes to digest this news!
We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. If you agree and/or disagree with us, you can either email us; leave your comments at our YouTube channel, and/or leave them at our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 
Some of the discussion points we cover in the podcast:
We give our initial thoughts on the removal of Dudley.
Who will take over from Dudley?
Is this the end of the Frew comic?
What was Dudley's legacy?
You can email us at [email protected] or chat with us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. We love comments and feedback from the Phantom phans from around the world. Make sure you stay with us, and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast on our YouTube Channel. 
Support the show